<?php
/**
 * <https://y.st./>
 * Copyright © 2018 Alex Yst <mailto:copyright@y.st>
 * 
 * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 * 
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org./licenses/>.
**/

$xhtml = array(
	'<{title}>' => 'Finally, some help',
	'takedown' => '2017-11-01',
	'<{body}>' => <<<END
<img src="/img/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./weblog/2018/10/22.jpg" alt="ROAD CLOSED" class="framed-centred-image" width="649" height="480"/>
<section id="drudgery">
	<h2>Drudgery</h2>
	<p>
		I awoke to find another letter from my advisor telling me that I only have forty-eight hours left to register for courses.
		They still haven&apos;t addressed the issue that I&apos;m <strong>*unable*</strong> to register for the courses I need!
		I responded as such:
	</p>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			Hello <span class="redacted">[REDACTED]</span>,
		</p>
		<p>
			This is the third time I&apos;ve asked you for help with this.
			You keep telling me that I need to register for courses, but THE WEBSITE WON&apos;T LET ME REGISTER FOR THE COURSES I NEED!
			You keep not helping me with the situation at hand, then telling me again that I must register.
			What do you want me to do!?
		</p>
		<p>
			As I told you before, this is my final term as an associate-level student.
			Next term, I need to take bachelor-level courses.
			However, because I&apos;m still technically still an associate-level student this term, the website is refusing to allow me to register for bachelor-level courses for next term.
			I can&apos;t switch to the bachelor program just yet though, because I need to finalise my associate degree so I have it for job-hunting.
			How do I register for the courses I need?
		</p>
		<p>
			Thank you,<br/>
			~ Alex Yst
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<p>
		This time, I carbon copied it to four various other email addresses associated with various university departments that seemed like they might be able to help.
		Most of all though, I wanted someone else at the university to be aware that the academic advisor isn&apos;t responding.
		Can we get this advisor written up or something so they&apos;ll actually do their <strong>*job*</strong>?
		Seriously.
		This time though, the advisor responded to my letter, and fairly quickly, too. Maybe they saw that I&apos;d carbon copied the letter so others know they&apos;ve not been addressing the problem?
		I certainly made sure to use visible carbon copying and not blind carbon copying, just in case that&apos;d spur them to action, though to be honest, I thought they weren&apos;t reading my emails at all.
		They said they&apos;d contact relevant departments about the issue.
		There&apos;s not a whole lot of time left for said departments to respond though, given that they waited until just now to do anything.
		Later, they wrote back telling me to apply to switch degrees, which is exactly what I told them before I couldn&apos;t do, as I need to complete my associate degree.
		My response:
	</p>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			Hello Babajide,
		</p>
		<p>
			If I change degrees like that, will I still earn my associate degree at the end of this term?
			Skipping the associate degree isn&apos;t an option.
			I need to graduate from the associate program so I can use that degree to job hunt in a couple weeks.
		</p>
		<p>
			Thank you,<br/>
			~ Lexi
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<p>
		My discussion posts for the day:
	</p>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			You misunderstand.
			I <strong>*liked*</strong> your post!
			I was disappointed in the <strong>*reading material*</strong>.
			I was disappointed in the <strong>*textbook*</strong>.
			Your post was great though.
			I&apos;m sorry if I was unclear.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			There are some genetic differences that cause men and women to act differently, but it&apos;s not all genetic.
			Much of it is how our cultures expect us to behave.
			Men are &quot;supposed&quot; to act one way, and women are &quot;supposed&quot; to act another.
			This trains people to act differently depending on their gender in theory, though because most people don&apos;t understand the difference between sex and gender, it actually trains people to act differently based on their sex.
			If you don&apos;t act the way people of your sex are expected to act, for example, you get made fun of in elementary school.
			The pressure is on for people to behave differently depending on their sex from a very early age.
			Even before elementary school, parents but children clothing and toys based on their sex, expecting them to behave a certain way and desire certain types of fashion.
			And because parents praise the children that go along with it, these children are trained to like these things, making it seem like there is much more of a biological difference than there really is.
		</p>
		<p>
			Take kilts, for example.
			In Ireland, kilts are considered a very manly garment.
			There&apos;s really not much difference between a kilt and a skirt, but in other cultures, a skirt is considered very feminine.
			Most men wouldn&apos;t be caught dead in one!
			There&apos;s nothing biological in how kilts/skirts are desired by one gender more than another.
			That&apos;s all conditioned into people from a young age.
		</p>
		<p>
			Your example with sun exposure is great too.
			You naturally wanted sun exposure, but your culture didn&apos;t approve of women with tans, so you shied away from the sun.
			Meanwhile, in some cultures, women intentionally expose themselves to lots of sun to deliberately cause a tan.
		</p>
		<p>
			The hormonal fluctuation are genetic though.
			I know what you mean about them affecting moods pretty badly.
			I sometimes find myself thinking bitchy thoughts all day due to hormones, and though I do my best to keep most of that from affecting how I act around others, an occasional mean comment will slip out before I can catch myself.
		</p>
		<p>
			I certainly think it&apos;d be better if men and women were treated more equally, and not deliberately coerced by social norms to act differently just to fit into stereotypes.
			This does of course include relevant health behaviour norms.
			There&apos;s no reason to pressure women to care for themselves while at the same time pressuring men to think they&apos;re above the need for self-care.
			Everyone should be taught to care for themselves, regardless of sex or gender.
			Self-care should be a societal norm.
		</p>
	</blockquote>
</section>
<section id="warranty">
	<h2>Warranty claim</h2>
	<p>
		Remember those warranty claims I filed a while back?
		The replacement items broke again in about a week, but I didn&apos;t have time to deal with that at the moment.
		Today, I refiled one of the warranty claims.
		The other item had gone past its warranty period, so that&apos;s what I get for not getting right on that.
	</p>
</section>
END
);
